Ghost Hunt Fluff Week 2015

Tuesday – Tea

#Sorry I took so long with my entries! Work was a bleep, and I've been so flat out the last couple of weeks it's not funny.
But these are my entries for the Fluff Week Snavej and AmyNChan have organised!

It had only taken Naru six months after his return to Japan to land himself in hospital. Thankfully, it wasn't PK related – although, Mai technically was involved, once again. Even though the case had been simple enough, a poltergeist caused by the lingering spirit of a teenaged suicide victim, Naru still found himself in hospital with a cracked collarbone, and high as a kite on pain medication. (That bit was all on Ayako though, in Mai's defence)

With Masako out of the country again with her show, Mai had been the one to attempt to converse with the distraught spirit. The interactions they'd shared on the Astral Plain had gone relatively smoothly, even without Gene nudging her along. Logically, she should have been able to communicate with the spirit in the land of the Living, but apparently the spirit didn't get that memo, and attempted to throw a chest of drawers at her instead. Something big and bulky like that had been easy to avoid; that's when the whole room had started to vibrate, and Naru had shouted for her to return to the safety of the base, even as he and Lin started to come to her.

When the big china cabinet had come rushing straight for her though, Mai barely had time to scream before Naru was there, shoving her out of the way and being crushed instead. Lin had whistled his shiki, the spirit had been destroyed, and Ayako had an ambulance from her parents hospital (which wasn't far away, surprisingly) already rushing to their location.

Luckily for Naru, he'd managed to get away from the whole experience with bruising and only the one serious injury. Unfortunately, it caused him incredible pain, and whilst his pride hadn't allowed him to readily reveal that (especially to Ayako, of all people), she'd taken the whole thing into her own hands and dosed him on up medication. Lin and Yasu had been sent back to pack up the base, and Ayako had had Mai stay behind to watch over Naru for them all (Bou-san had been at a concert, and John was performing a christening for his nephew back in Australia).

Thankfully Mai had had the foresight to grab the thermos of tea before their mad dash to the hospital behind the ambulance – she knew it would be high on Naru's list of demands once he woke up.

Just as Ayako had promised, Naru's reaction to the drugs had been hilarious – he'd started fanboying about the dinosaur pattern decorating the wall outside of his room, and attempted to tell Mai about it in some mishmashed language that was somewhere between English, Japanese, and potentially Wooki. (Mai wasn't sure about that last one)

"I want tea~!" He finally whined, once he'd run out of things to say about the dinosaurs – and boy was Mai glad for that, she hadn't been able to follow all of those saurs and morphs and something-ae and something-id.

Smiling softly, Mai poured a small sip from the thermos into its lid and offered it to her boss.

"Don' wannit." He said petulantly, wiping the smile off his assistant's face.

"Naru," She began warningly.

"I want Mai's tea!" He whined, blue eyes big and pleading.

Mai blinked. That wasn't entirely new – he had once refused tea made by Masako – but in this instance…

"Naru, I made this tea this morning."

"Then I want fresh Mai tea!"

"Where the hell am I supposed to do that?!"

"Ayako brought you everything." He deadpanned, pointing to the small shelf at the back of the room. "I thought you'd gotten cleverer, but maybe I was wrong."

"Bastard!" Mai hissed under her breath, sorely tempted just to tell him to drink the tea he had.

But gods damn those beautiful eyes… Because even if he was still an arsehole when he's high on medication, even when he says rude things and teases her, she still really liked him. And even though he'd turned her down, they were still friends, in a roundabouts way. And he still loved her tea. And for the time being, that was enough for Mai.